Just wanted to pop out and say hi; I’ve been lurking here for a little while checking on whistle reviews and tweaking strategies and I figured it was to get a little more involved. At this point I’m just a beginner’s beginner, with an uncommonly hard time reading treble clef. Not cause I’m an idiot (regardless what my wife says! ) but I’ve got 17 yrs of trombone playing behind me so my brain automatically sees bass clef regardless. Ah well, I’ll get over it… I do seem to emerged with a pretty solid case of WhOA in an amazingly short period of time, but I’m sticking with inexpensive whistles for the time being 'till my skills progress past the level of being able to play a D scale. Actually I did manage to play along with “Nao Vas Ao Mar” off the Chieftains Santiago album, but I think that was just a fluke! As of now my stash includes such diverse elements as:
Walton Guinness (my first, from years ago)
Clarke Original unpainted D
Sweetone C
Meg D
Generation nickel F
Generation brass Bb
Acorn D
Feadog D
oh yeah, and a Generation D tabor pipe that I got on a whim and I have no idea how to play! (yet)
So far they’re all untweaked, but I’m going to rectify that as soon as I get some time off from work. Unfortunately here in Richmond, as far as I can tell, there aren’t any sessions going on least of all for rank amateurs. Oh well, I reckon there are enough resources out there to get me to a level where my dog won’t try to bite my ankles whenever I pick up a whistle!
Hi ashboomstick–Glad you’ve come out of hiding. It is really true here that the more, the merrier. Just don’t spend more time tweaking than practicing . Although your dog might feel otherwise.
A piece of advice:
Do less of the former (worrying about reading dots) and more of the latter (learning by listening).
Why?
If you eventually want to play in sessions, the way to expand one’s repertoire is to learn tunes on the fly. This is a learned skill, and takes a lot of practice. It is possible though.
You will remember tunes a lot more thoroughly, in less time, if they are picked up through the ears
By listening to the tunes, you will pick up all sorts of nuances in the idiom of Irish music that aren;t apparent in sheet music. If nothing else, it will lead to more appreciation for it.
One problem with learning by ear is that you can only learn the tunes that you can hear - and you can tend to end up mimicking others and sounding like someone else.
Learning to play by reading music gives one a much broader base to expand their personal repertoire as more music is available and accessible this way. I see nothing wrong in me playing a piece of music the way i wish to interpret it from the notation.
I’ve been reading music since i was a child and i really enjoy learning this way. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. If i hear a tune i like, i get the music and learn it.
Another thing with notation is that a piece of music that may not have been played by anyone for two hundred years is still available to everyone who wishes to try it out. If we all played by ear the world would lose many tunes that future generations may enjoy playingt even if our generation doesn’t.
Learning by ear is by far the best way to go for Irish Traditonal Music. If your musical interests are elsewhere, sheet music, and ABC notation are okay.
thanks everybody! I definitely plan on learning as much as I can by ear but at this juncture I need to get the basics down, so I’ll have to rely on the books and tutor CDs for a while. Last night I was bored at work (working nights-5on/1off for a month long refueling outage at the plant) and I got the Tinwhistle Toolbox and a Dixon tunable D from the Whistle Shop. I think I’m gonna have to regulate my whistle related surfing or I’ll have to get a cheaper addiction - like smoking crack!
Regarding tweaking: yeah I’m gonna have to do it on some. The Clark’s windway looks like the friggin’ Arc de Triomphe!
for those that don’t have a place to go to listen to live music. Even with dialup the site is useable. I don’t see a slow down function on the BBC site. Audacity is freeware that has that capability and that helps when learning by ear.
WOW! Holy crapolie! that’s exactly what I need! I can’t stop using exclamation points! SMACK Ok, I’m good now. That BBC site is awesome, with a good selection of songs that I’m not familiar with. And that Audacity program is good because the tempo and pitch adjust on WMP leaves a little something to be desired. Plus my brother-in-law was asking the other day if I could burn a CD of his old LPs and I see it can help with that. Brilliant!
) but I’ve got 17 yrs of trombone playing behind me so my brain automatically sees bass clef regardless. Ah well, I’ll get over it… I do seem to emerged with a pretty solid case of WhOA in an amazingly short period of time, but I’m sticking with inexpensive whistles for the time being 'till my skills progress past the level of being able to play a D scale. Actually I did manage to play along with “Nao Vas Ao Mar” off the Chieftains Santiago album, but I think that was just a fluke! 
As of now my stash includes such diverse elements as:
